Politics
Parliament Instructs the Government to Cease Russian Peacekeeping
Reading Time: 4 minutesParliament Instructs the Government to Cease Russian Peacekeeping
The Georgian Parliament passed a resolution on July 18 instructing the government to launch relevant procedures in order to immediately suspend, as the document reads, “the so-called peacekeeping operations” in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“It is clear that actions undertaken by the Russian Federation’s armed forces in Abkhazia and in former autonomous district of South Ossetia represent one of the major obstacles on the way to solve these conflicts peacefully,” the resolution reads and accuses Russia of “a permanent attempt to annex Georgia’s territory.”
The Parliament also instructed the government to immediately undertake measures necessary “for deployment of the international police forces” in the conflict zones.
But the Parliament’s resolution does not mean that the mandate of peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia will automatically be ceased. It is now up to the executive authorities to denounce those agreements which make a legal base of current peacekeeping operations in the conflict zones.
The resolution does not set timeframe to the executive authorities for implementing those necessary procedures which should eventually lead to a formal suspending of the current peacekeeping operations.
“Of course setting of deadlines would have been better, but we should understand that we are now in a very serious struggle, which needs time. The most important is that the Georgian government and legislative body are determined to put an end to [current peacekeeping operations],” MP Davit Bakradze, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for European Integration Issues, said at the parliamentary session on July 18.
Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said that Georgia wants international operation, instead of the Russian-led peacekeeping operation in the conflict zones.
She also said that Georgia will sign agreements on non-resumption of hostilities with secessionist authorities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia only under the international aegis. “We want genuinely international guarantees and not those of Russia,” Nino Burjanadze told parliamentarians on July 18.
Peacekeepers in Abkhazia
About 2 000 Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the Abkhaz conflict zone under the aegis of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), in accordance to an agreement on Cease-Fire and Separation of Forces signed by the Georgian and Abkhaz sides in Moscow on May 14, 1994.
Russian troops were deployed in Abkhazia on June 21, 1994 under the formal name of Collective Peacekeeping Forces of CIS. The 1994 agreement authorized the peacekeeping forces to maintain the cease-fire and to promote “the safe return of refugees and displaced persons especially to the Gali district.”
Deployment of the peacekeepers was then formally approved with a document adopted by the leaders of the CIS member states on August 22, 1994. The document reads that the peacekeeping troops are deployed upon the request of the Georgian and Abkhaz sides.
The peacekeeping forces were deployed in the conflict zone for six months, but their mandate was prolonged in every half-year. In summer, 2003 by-then Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said that during the meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which took place on March 7, 2003 in Sochi, the two Presidents reached an agreement under which Russian peacekeepers can stay in the conflict zone until one of the sides demands their withdrawal.
Peacekeeping Operation in South Ossetia
On February 15, 2006 the Georgian Parliament passed a resolution on peacekeeping operation in South Ossetia, which was flexible and unlike the recent resolution was not instructing the government to immediately launch procedures to cease mandate of the peacekeeping forces.
Russian troops are stationed in South Ossetia as part of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF), which also involves Georgian and Ossetian servicemen. The JPKF was set up and stationed in the conflict zone based on a June 24, 1992 agreement. Then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin and then-Head of the Georgian State Eduard Shevardnadze signed this agreement in Russia’s resort city of Sochi.
Although the JPKF was set up on the basis of Sochi agreement, a detailed mandate for the joint forces was outlined later in 1992 in agreements signed in frames of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) – a quadripartite negotiating body involving the Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia’s North Ossetian sides. The JCC was also set up on the basis of the 1992 Sochi agreement.
The 1992 Sochi agreement and following decisions by the JCC mandated that the JPKF provide peace and maintain law and order in the conflict zone. But the JPKF’s mandate was modified in February, 1997 through a decision by the JCC and “maintenance of law and order” was removed from the JPKF’s mandate.
According to the JCC agreement of July 6, 1992, the duration of presence of JPKF is defined by the Heads of States of Russia and Georgia. “The JCC offers its proposals over this issue to the Heads of States,” according to the July 6, 1992 JCC agreement.
Georgia will have to renounce the 1992 Sochi agreement if it wants to cease the JPKF’s activities in the conflict zone. Withdrawal from this agreement will automatically result in ceasing the JCC’s mandate as well.
Opposition’s reaction
Opposition lawmakers, who are boycotting the parliamentary sessions since March 31, 2006, refused to participate in the discussion of the resolution on peacekeepers.
Opposition MPs said that tangible actions from the executive government are needed to put an end to the Russian-led peacekeeping operations, rather than the Georgian Parliament’s resolutions.
“It [adoption of resolutions] is a waste of time. Let the government announce that Georgia quits the CIS and of course this will automatically lead to stopping of the peacekeepers’ mandate in Abkhazia,” MP Levan Berdzenishvili of the opposition Republican Party, said.
Government’s Position
Although the Georgia’s top leadership is denouncing the current Russian-led peacekeeping operations in Abkhazia and South Ossetia as ineffective, it is still unclear what will be the executive authorities’ steps following the Parliament’s resolution.
“Neither in Tskhinvali [breakaway South Ossetia], nor in Abkhazia Russian peacekeepers are fulfilling their mandate and moreover there are no indications that they are going to fulfill it. So we are waiting for the Parliament’s radical decision about these issues,” PM Nogaideli told reporters on July 17.
“Nothing will hinder to implement the Parliament’s decision,” Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said on July 17.
On July 11 President Saakashvili criticized Russian peacekeeping forces and said that “Georgian territory’s intensive annexation is taking place behind these peacekeeping troops.” // Civil.Ge
“Time for making decision on peacekeepers is approaching… We are waiting for the Parliament’s decision about this issue,” he added.
The Georgian Parliament has passed a total of six resolutions, including the recent one, about the Russian peacekeeping forces in past nine years. Three out of these six resolutions have been passed in recent nine months (the October 11, 2005 resolution No 1927-II; the February 15, 2006 resolution No 2655-I and the July 18, 2006 resolution). Three previous resolutions are passed by the Parliament during the Eduard Shevardnadze’s presidency in 1997, 2001 and 2002 respectively requesting the executive authorities to pull out peacekeepers from the Abkhaz conflict zone.
A new football club has earned a leading place in the UEFA Champions League groups and starred in the headlines of worldwide football news yesterday. The Football Club Sheriff Tiraspol claimed a win with the score 2-1 against Real Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. That made Sheriff Tiraspol the leader in Group D of the Champions League, including the football club in the groups of the most important European interclub competition for the first time ever.
International media outlets called it a miracle, a shock and a historic event, while strongly emphasizing the origin of the team and the existing political conflict between the two banks of the Dniester. “Football club from a pro-Russian separatist enclave in Moldova pulls off one of the greatest upsets in Champions League history,” claimed the news portals. “Sheriff crushed Real!” they said.
Moldovans made a big fuss out of it on social media, splitting into two groups: those who praised the team and the Republic of Moldova for making history and those who declared that the football club and their merits belong to Transnistria – a problematic breakaway region that claims to be a separate country.
Both groups are right and not right at the same time, as there is a bunch of ethical, political, social and practical matters that need to be considered.
Is it Moldova?
First of all, every Moldovan either from the right or left bank of Dniester (Transnistria) is free to identify himself with this achievement or not to do so, said Vitalie Spranceana, a sociologist, blogger, journalist and urban activist. According to him, boycotting the football club for being a separatist team is wrong.
At the same time, “it’s an illusion to think that territory matters when it comes to football clubs,” Spranceana claimed. “Big teams, the ones included in the Champions League, have long lost their connection both with the countries in which they operate, and with the cities in which they appeared and to which they linked their history. […] In the age of globalized commercial football, teams, including the so-called local ones, are nothing more than global traveling commercial circuses, incidentally linked to cities, but more closely linked to all sorts of dirty, semi-dirty and cleaner cash flows.”
What is more important in this case is the consistency, not so much of citizens, as of politicians from the government who have “no right to celebrate the success of separatism,” as they represent “the national interests, not the personal or collective pleasures of certain segments of the population,” believes the political expert Dionis Cenusa. The victory of FC Sheriff encourages Transnistrian separatism, which receives validation now, he also stated.
“I don’t know how it happens that the “proud Moldovans who chose democracy”, in their enthusiasm for Sheriff Tiraspol’s victory over Real Madrid, forget the need for total and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria!” declared the journalist Vitalie Ciobanu.
Nowadays, FC Sheriff Tiraspol has no other choice than to represent Moldova internationally. For many years, the team used the Moldovan Football Federation in order to be able to participate in championships, including international ones. That is because the region remains unrecognised by the international community. However, the club’s victory is presented as that of Transnistria within the region, without any reference to the Republic of Moldova, its separatist character being applied in this case especially.
Is it a victory?
In fact, FC Sheriff Tiraspol joining the Champions League is a huge image breakthrough for the Transnistrian region, as the journalist Madalin Necsutu claimed. It is the success of the Tiraspol Club oligarchic patrons. From the practical point of view, FC Sheriff Tiraspol is a sports entity that serves its own interests and the interests of its owners, being dependent on the money invested by Tiraspol (but not only) oligarchs.
Here comes the real dilemma: the Transnistrian team, which is generously funded by money received from corruption schemes and money laundering, is waging an unequal fight with the rest of the Moldovan football clubs, the journalist also declared. The Tiraspol team is about to raise 15.6 million euro for reaching the Champions League groups and the amounts increase depending on their future performance. According to Necsutu, these money will go directly on the account of the club, not to the Moldovan Football Federation, creating an even bigger gab between FC Sheriff and other football clubs from Moldova who have much more modest financial possibilities.
“I do not see anything useful for Moldovan football, not a single Moldovan player is part of FC Sheriff Tiraspol. I do not see anything beneficial for the Moldovan Football Federation or any national team.”
Is it only about football?
FC Sheriff Tiraspol, with a total estimated value of 12.8 million euros, is controlled by Victor Gusan and Ilya Kazmala, being part of Sheriff Holding – a company that controls the trade of wholesale, retail food, fuels and medicine by having monopolies on these markets in Transnistria. The holding carries out car trading activities, but also operates in the field of construction and real estate. Gusan’s people also hold all of the main leadership offices in the breakaway region, from Parliament to the Prime Minister’s seat or the Presidency.
The football club is supported by a holding alleged of smuggling, corruption, money laundering and organised crime. Moldovan media outlets published investigations about the signals regarding the Sheriff’s holding involvement in the vote mobilization and remuneration of citizens on the left bank of the Dniester who participated in the snap parliamentary elections this summer and who were eager to vote for the pro-Russian socialist-communist bloc.
Considering the above, there is a great probability that the Republic of Moldova will still be represented by a football club that is not identified as being Moldovan, being funded from obscure money, growing in power and promoting the Transnistrian conflict in the future as well.
Photo: unknown
Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Natalia Gavrilita, together with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicu Popescu, pay an official visit to Brussels, between September 27-28, being invited by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell Fontelles.
Today, Prime Minister had a meeting with Charles Michel, President of the European Council. The Moldovan PM thanked the senior European official for the support of the institution in strengthening democratic processes, reforming the judiciary and state institutions, economic recovery and job creation, as well as increasing citizens’ welfare. Natalia Gavrilita expressed her confidence that the current visit laid the foundations for boosting relations between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, so that, in the next period, it would be possible to advance high-level dialogues on security, justice and energy. Officials also exchanged views on priorities for the Eastern Partnership Summit, to be held in December.
“The EU is open to continue to support the Republic of Moldova and the ambitious reform agenda it proposes. Moldova is an important and priority partner for us,” said Charles Michel.
Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita also met with Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy, expressing her gratitude for the support received through the OMNIBUS macro-financial assistance program. The two officials discussed the need to advance the recovery of money from bank fraud, to strengthen sustainable mechanisms for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in Moldova, and to standardize the customs and taxes as one of the main conditions for deepening cooperation with the EU in this field.
Additionally, Prime Minister spoke about the importance of the Eastern Partnership and the Deep Free Trade Agreement, noting that the Government’s policies are aimed at developing an economic model aligned with the European economic model, focused on digitalization, energy efficiency and the green economy.
A common press release of the Moldovan Prime Minister with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission, Josep Borrell Fontelles, took place today, where the agenda of Moldova’s reforms and the main priorities to focus on in the coming months were presented: judiciary reform; fighting COVID-19 pandemic; promoting economic recovery and conditions for growth and job creation; strengthening state institutions and resilience of the country.
“I am here to relaunch the dialogue between my country and the European Union. Our partnership is strong, but I believe there is room for even deeper cooperation and stronger political, economic and sectoral ties. I am convinced that this partnership is the key to the prosperity of our country and I hope that we will continue to strengthen cooperation.”
The Moldovan delegation met Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice. Tomorrow, there are scheduled common meetings with Oliver Varhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport and Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.
Prime Minister will also attend a public event, along with Katarina Mathernova, Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
Photo: gov.md
Politics
Promo-LEX about Maia Sandu’s UN speech: The president must insist on appointing a rapporteur to monitor the situation of human rights in Transnistria
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, pays an official visit to New York, USA, between September 21-22. There, she participates in the work of the United Nations General Assembly. According to a press release of the President’s Office, the official will deliver a speech at the tribune of the United Nations.
In this context, the Promo-LEX Association suggested the president to request the appointment of a special rapporteur in order to monitor the situation of human rights in the Transnistrian region. According to Promo-LEX, the responsibility for human rights violations in the Transnistrian region arises as a result of the Russian Federation’s military, economic and political control over the Tiraspol regime.
“We consider it imperative to insist on the observance of the international commitments assumed by the Russian Federation regarding the withdrawal of the armed forces and ammunition from the territory of the country,” the representatives of Promo-LEX stated. They consider the speech before the UN an opportunity “to demand the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Russian Federation with reference to this territory which is in its full control.”
“It is important to remember about the numerous cases of murder, torture, ill-treatment, forced enlistment in illegal military structures, the application of pseudo-justice in the Transnistrian region, all carried out under the tacit agreement of the Russian Federation. These findings stem from dozens of rulings and decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Russia is responsible for human rights violations in the region.”
The association representatives expressed their hope that the president of the country would give priority to issues related to the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region and would call on relevant international actors to contribute to guaranteeing fundamental human rights and freedoms throughout Moldova.
They asked Maia Sandu to insist on the observance of the obligation to evacuate the ammunition and the military units of the Russian Federation from the territory of the Republic of Moldova, to publicly support the need for the Russian Federation to implement the ECtHR rulings on human rights violations in the Transnistrian region, and to request the appointment of an UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur to monitor the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.
**
The Promo-LEX Association concluded that 14 out of 25 actions planned within the National Action Plan for the years 2018–2022 concerning respecting human rights in Transnistria were not carried out by the responsible authorities.
The association expressed its concern and mentioned that there are a large number of delays in the planned results. “There is a lack of communication and coordination between the designated institutions, which do not yet have a common vision of interaction for the implementation of the plan.”
Promo-LEX requested the Government of the Republic of Moldova to re-assess the reported activities and to take urgent measures, “which would exclude superficial implementation of future activities and increase the level of accountability of the authorities.”
Photo: peacekeeping.un.org
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